The News Room [News Archive]

Sheriff Contact: John Roach: 313-224-0615
Release Date: Tuesday January 27, 2003

DPD-Sheriff collaboration nets 3,000 felony fugitives in 1st year of operation --- FAST unit's success cited as key to city's declining homicide rate

What began one year ago as an experiment to address a chronic fugitive problem in Wayne County arguably has become the most productive law enforcement collaboration in Michigan history, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans announced today. They also say that their joint Fugitive Apprehension Service Team [FAST] is a major contributing factor to Detroit's declining homicide rate.

Since it was established on January 27, 2003, FAST, which is made up primarily of Detroit police officers and sheriff’s deputies, has arrested more than 3,000 felony fugitives. Many of these individuals were wanted on active warrants for crimes ranging from assault to armed robbery and murder.

Kilpatrick says he is convinced that the near quadrupling of fugitive arrests since FAST was established is a key factor in Detroit’s declining homicide rate. According to unofficial statistics, the number of murders in Detroit fell 8.1% in 2003 over the previous year's total, bucking a national trend of higher crime.

"The results are indisputable. When you take thousands of career criminals off the streets and out of our neighborhoods, you are going to make them safer," Kilpatrick said. "Common sense will tell you there is a direct correlation between the two.”

FAST’s 3,000th "Customer"
The FAST team hit the 3,000 arrest mark in a big way on Friday, January 23rd, when officers apprehended Gregory Ray Washington, 35, of Detroit. Washington was wanted on an active murder warrant for the August 2003 fatal shooting of Martin Ngaima, who had just arrived in Detroit after fleeing the violence in his native Liberia. Washington also was wanted by the Michigan Department of Corrections for absconding from his parole. Washington previously had been convicted of auto theft, receiving stolen property and escaping from prison.

Washington's girlfriend, Shanettea Smith, 32, also was picked up on a CCW warrant out of Detroit.

Establishing the FAST team
The FAST unit was created last year after media reports revealed there were more than 26,000 felony fugitives on the loose in the county, mostly in Detroit. It was then that Sheriff Evans and DPD officials collaborated to combine officers from Wayne County's warrant enforcement unit with additional officers from Detroit to focus solely on fugitive apprehension.

"Everybody recognized that some problems are too big for one agency to handle alone, and clearly this was one of them," Evans said. "This collaborative approach has become a model that our departments are now using in other areas, such as locating missing and exploited children, and should be a model for other large cities, as well."

In addition to 17 Detroit officers and 16 sheriff's deputies, FAST also includes one US Marshal and one officer from the Taylor and Livonia police departments.

No incidents
Despite the fact that FAST officers often have to perform forced entries and that many of those being arrested are known to be violent, Detroit Police Chief Ella M. Bully-Cummings said that no suspects or officers have been seriously injured in any of the 3,000 arrests.

"That's an amazing fact when you consider circumstances of most of these apprehensions," she said. "It is a real testament to the restraint and professionalism exhibited by these officers."

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